Sunday, January 31, 2016

RETRO: Daytona's Inaugural 24 Hours race - 50 years ago

Was totally unawares' that this year's Rolex 24 is
the golden anniversary of the now yearly twice round-the-clock endurance
classic...

It's pretty amazing that 50yrs ago B-I-G'
Bill France proclaimed that his Daytona International Speedway would host its
first-ever 24hr endurance race in part to mimic the success of France's 24
Heurs du Mans which was then the only 24hr race. Although the Daytona combined
Oval and Infield road course's overall length was 3.81-miles, slightly longer
than today's recognized 3.56-mile length.

Alas, it was Ford scoring a clean sweep of
the podium, with Lloyd Ruby and Ken Miles aboard the Shelby entered #98 taking
victory, followed home by team-mates Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant's #97 and Mark
Donohue and Walt Hansgen finishing third in their No. 95
Holman & Moody entry.

As it was Hansgen who
initially spotted the raw talents of the man who'd later on affectionately
become "Captain America" at Penske Racing, which I've chronicled last
summer in;

Whilst another interesting tidbit about the '66
race was the fact that the firstfemale
to race at Mother Speedway, aka Indianapolis - Janet Guthrie was part of two
all female racing teams pilotingSunbeam-Alpine's...

Thus ironically
we're being treated to a rematch of those epic battle royale's between Ford and
Ferrari today, albeit in the second tier or is it third? As this year's scrum
between the Ford GT and Ferrari 488 GTE is taking place in the GT Le Mans class
- for which I've had ZERO idea how they're doing during the race - largely due
to the LACK of Terrestrial TV coverage; GROAN!

And unless you're one of the lucky few who's
privy to Fox Sports-2, then you MISSED Thy majority 'O television
coverage! Which as far as I can tell won't even have its finish broadcasted on
Fox Sports-1: SHEISA! Since my TV guide says FS1 IMSA TV coverage will be from
4-7:30AM Pacific - which theoretically would be less than 24hrs since the Green
flag supposedly flew Saturday at 11:40AM Pacific.

Since the final two hours of the race's conclusion
on FS1 wasn't listed on my TV Guide when I originally scribbled this. As
hopefully Y'all caught the final 2hrs of Fox Sports-1's paltry Rolex 24
coverage...

And hopefully the most affable Aussie' Ryan Briscoe
is still savouring the taste 'O champagne with his No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi
team-mates after taking GT Le Mans class honours!

Post race

Unfortunately, as the most enjoyable lead
broadcasting voice of IMSA.com's most Excellante round Thy clock coverage John Hindhaugh pointed out. The
Hypefest over Ford's return was a huge disappointment! As Briscoe was forced to
bring the car in just after the first 10min while stuck in sixth gear. And then
they had not one, but two rear tyres go down on the banking NO less! Which
thrashed the car's exotic aerodynamics.

As
Hindhaugh noted that Ford was probably astounded with how stout the GT Le Mans
competition was and perhaps, Briscoe & Co are using thee anticipated champagne
to drown their sorrows before obviously bucklin' down for Sebring and beyond...